The US Government Doesn’t Have Secret Laws… Does It?

When you’re being forced to comply with a law, do you think that the law itself should be a secret? A CNET.com news article reveals a suit against the Bush Administration, which “claims that the ID requirement [for flying] is necessary for security but has refused to identify any actual regulation requiring it.” In fact… “The Justice Department has said it could identify the secret law under seal, which would be available to the 9th Circuit but not necessarily [the plaintiff's] lawyers. But any public description would not be permitted, the department said.”

When a tortoise "adopts" a baby hippo

South Africa’s News24.com reports that an approximately 100-year-old tortoise has for a while now been a steady companion to a young hippo who survived the December 2004 tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast.

Setup a mountable Linux filesystem using your GMail account

“GmailFS provides a mountable Linux filesystem which uses your Gmail account as its storage medium.”

That’s a cool hack.

Where does "security" come from?

Having witnessed “a wide range of abuses” to prisoners, including “death threats, beatings, broken bones, murder, exposure to elements, extreme forced physical exertion, hostage-taking, stripping, sleep deprivation and degrading treatment” when serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, Captain Ian Fishback asks, “Do we sacrifice our ideals in order to preserve security?”

And the answer is, “no.”

John Travolta – 100% Slug

100% Slug
Originally uploaded by forestbeans.

From the movie “Pulp Fiction.”

We can degrade or upgrade

The CIA is working very hard to reserve for itself the power to hold prisoners indefinitely, to terrify, to torture, and to do so in complete secret — although all of their secret prisons outside the United States have been funded by Congress. And “the White House has refused to allow the CIA to brief anyone except the House and Senate intelligence committees’ chairmen and vice chairmen on the program’s generalities.”

I believe that we degrade ourselves when we treat others in such a way. But at the same time, we have the choice to treat others differently. We can raise our standards, and in so doing, raise who we really are. Isn’t it amazing that we have so much power? Let’s use it — and let’s use it wisely.

Simple Secure File Transfer Miracles

Well, you might not think it’s a miracle, but I’m thankful for the rssh restricted shell. This little baby allows you to restrict ssh users on your POSIX-compatible operating system to only scp or sftp. Something the OpenSSH server doesn’t do. Yay!

Voight-Kampff Test Does it Again

I just think it’s a miracle that personal, human interactions, human faces, and human interests haven’t been completely eclipsed by the “technology agenda.” That’s a great feeling.

And we need to test all our candidates for political office, just to make sure.

This San Francisco newsmagazine decided to check whether their mayoral candidates were human, or Replicants.

The Adventures of Kotar – Defender of Big Fridee!: Ambition…

Something’s happening to Kotar.

Buona Sera

Buona Sera
Originally uploaded by forestbeans.

A gentle evening meal, with quiet conversation, is just the thing to round out the day.